Sources: Planned Parenthood president to resign

Cecile Richards, the longtime president of Planned Parenthood, plans to resign soon, according to a report from BuzzFeed News Wednesday. Citing anonymous sources, the news site said Richards, 60, had informed several Planned Parenthood board members that she would step down. “Cecile plans to discuss 2018 and the next steps for Planned Parenthood’s future at the upcoming board meeting,” which is scheduled for late next week, the organization said in a statement to BuzzFeed on Wednesday. Richards has led the United States’ largest abortion provider since 2006. She raised Planned Parenthood’s national profile, secured celebrity endorsements, and made the organization a political powerhouse deeply entrenched with the Democratic Party. But the abortion giant also found itself mired in scandal during her tenure when the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released undercover videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the practice of selling body parts of aborted babies. A special congressional panel called Richards to defend her organization’s practices, and she insisted that Planned Parenthood didn’t profit from the tissue procurement fees it charged companies. Not long after her testimony, Planned Parenthood changed its policy to stop charging tissue procurement fees at all. Last month, the Justice Department confirmed it was investigating Planned Parenthood’s tissue procurement practices based on the findings of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Cecile Richards was the most devoted practitioner of Planned Parenthood’s ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ mantra to cover up their barbaric abortion business from the public,” CMP said in a statement Wednesday. The CMP investigation led to a renewed push for lawmakers on Capitol Hill to cut off the organization’s $450 million in annual federal funding. President Donald Trump has said he supports defunding Planned Parenthood.